Iran hostage crisis

The Iran hostage crisis occurred between 4 November 1979 to 20 January 1981, during which 52 United States citizens were held hostage by the Iranian Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line student organization in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. The crisis was provoked by the United States granting asylum to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after he sought to receive cancer treatment in the USA, and the Iranian government demanded that Pahlavi be repatriated to Iran to be tried and hanged as punishment for his brutal reign as Shah. On 4 November 1979, 200 students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 52 citizens hostage, and 8 American servicemen were killed in a failed rescue attempt, Operation Eagle Claw, on 24 April 1980. However, the Canadian embassy smuggled six diplomats out of the country in the "Canadian Caper", and the rest of the hostages were released on 20 January 1981 after Ronald Reagan's inauguration as President of the United States and a US-Iran agreement that stated that the USA would not intervene in Iranian politics. The crisis led to the complete destruction of US-Iranian relations, and it led to US support for Ba'athist Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War and the growth of state-sponsored anti-Western sentiment in Iran.